MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. The Bank of Russia fears that the case of Cashberry company may become a new example of the long-playing Ponzi scheme, and this project may be reestablished under new names in future, Valery Lyakh, director of the regulator’s department for countering unfair practices, told TASS.
He compared the case of Cashberry to that of MMM, a Russian company that perpetrated one of the world’s largest Ponzi schemes of all time in the 1990s.
"I’m afraid that the case of Cashberry can become as long-playing as the case of MMM. That means that the project may pop up from time to time again, under the same name and even under the names of the founders. Although it is fraud, but the brand received good promotion. It is quite possible that it can be used to attract money — by the way, they do not spend so much on advertising. Surely there are still 'investors' who hope that they will be given money," he said.
Lyakh noted that even today his department reveals new organizations operating under the MMM brand.
"They still appear. Moreover, they do not have any relation to MMM, but they use this brand. We identified one such organization last quarter — they positioned themselves as an "international mutual aid fund, financial social network" and offered people an opportunity to increase their contributions eightfold in just three months," the head of the department at the Bank of Russia said.
In 2018, the Bank of Russia revealed a fraudulent financial system called Cashberry. The project was aimed at making people invest their money, offering highly lucrative returns on crypto investments. After thorough inspection, the Bank of Russia reported that the Cashberry company had no signs of real economic activity or legitimacy. By the experts’ estimates, the swindlers had managed to involve thousands of people in the project. The Bank of Russia assessed the damage from the company’s activities at three billion rubles ($47.5 mln). On November 1, 2018, owner of Cashberry, Arthur Vardanyan announced on his YouTube channel the termination of Cashberry activities and the creation of the new project, GDC.